Suspect in threats to Kauai boys found dead

LIHUE » A man set to go to trial Monday for allegedly threatening two teens with a machete and a pellet gun at a beach was found dead at his residence.

Kauai police confirmed that they found the body of 56-year-old Michael Ebinger on Monday. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Ebinger, a property caretaker on Kaupea Road, which overlooks Secret Beach, had been charged with three counts of terroristic threatening for allegedly poking two boys in the chest with a pellet gun and pointing a machete at one of them.

In October, the two boys, 14 and 15, had sneaked through the private property managed by Ebinger to go bodysurfing at Secret Beach. Ebinger caught them on the beach and told them if they returned, he would kill them, the boys testified at a preliminary hearing.

Police said Ebinger told them he thought the two boys were local thieves.

Ebinger was convicted of manslaughter in the 1983 shooting and dismemberment of 22-year-old Stuart Munson of Vermont at Secret Beach. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, but had completed his parole, prosecutors said.